2009 — 3 November: Tuesday
Suddenly it's after midnight. I found the John Logie Baird programme utterly fascinating, but I now have dishes to do and plums to stew if I want my fruit for the breakfast cereal in a few hour's time. But, before that, tonight's picture of Christa which shows her over in Germany for Christmas 1977. We were visiting her brother Georg at the time:
Right! On with the tasks, and then G'night.
Retail version of the doomsday machine
I'd always naively assumed that a promise by Shop A to match the price of Shop B was vaguely beneficial to me. Not at all. It's called "signalling" by economists. (Beautifully crafted explanation here.)
Time (08:53) for that beneficial first cuppa. It's not raining, but that's definitely the forecast for today. Not, in short, a day for nipping out for some Unobtanium!
Mutter, mutter
Having just heard one of the (excellent) Matthew Parris radio programmes about "valedictory" despatches from departing British ambassadors, (diplomat: a person sent abroad to lie for his country — source) I've been browsing some of the programme's links to material obtained under a series of "Freedom of Information" requests. Fascinating stuff, though still "redacted" in part. Here, for example, is the "Henderson" despatch (which originally turned up in The Economist 30 years ago, during the General Election campaign that brought la Thatch to the top of the smelly heap).
Three years?!
I've belatedly realised that on this day three years ago Christa came into the IBM Lab to hear my own valedictory remarks. You can see them (completely non-redacted) here.
The sun may have come and gone (again) but man's need for lunch is becoming pressing. It's 13:20 and I find myself drawn towards the kitchen once more. It seems we were lucky to have taken the scenic route through Romsey yesterday in our endless quest for tea. Today, we might just have met a mini-tornado (allegedly). I find it curious, by the way, to see that the "Southern Daily Echo" describes itself as "Newspaper of the year", but that's doubtless a tale for another day.
Nearly forgot. Yesterday's Blu-ray was, for a change, pushed through the letter box rather than dumped through the living room window:
One of my favourite actresses... The plot is a little downbeat, but that nice Mr ERNIE has just decided to send me twice his minimum payout this month to cheer me up again. And the rain has cleared away nicely for the time being. The fresh cuppa helps, too.
Plasticine versus Meccano
I shall probably tune in to see James May's giant plasticine garden tonight. I shall certainly watch out for his giant Meccano bridge next week, though quite how Edwina Currie gets involved is a bit of a mystery. I don't know why, but my son always preferred Lego to Meccano. I still have both up in the loft...
Having ordered (unseen) the DVD of the US TV series "Breaking Bad", I've now spotted it's going out on the "Five USA" channel tonight. This is the first time I've watched anything on that particular channel, which is why I've only just realised that it was missing from the Freesat lineup. Methinks I shall also try tonight's "Horizon"1 on hi-def as I take a passing interest in black holes.